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WEEKLY SUMMARY: Nasdaq best start since 1975 after Fed & US jobs
Most of the US equity indexes extended their winning streaks into February, helped by some upside surprises in economic data and Q4 earnings reports, as well as some dovish signals from the Fed. The S&P 500 reached an intraday high of 4,195 on Thursday, its best level since late August. A 23% jump on Thursday in Meta Platforms (Q4 beat + positive outlook) provided a major boost to the Nasdaq. Some of the enthusiasm drained on Friday, however, following disappointing results and outlooks from Apple, Alphabet and Amazon.com. On Wednesday, the Fed raised official short-term interest rates by another quarter point, as was widely expected. Nevertheless, the major indexes jumped as investors seemed to interpret the overall tone of his remarks as more dovish than expected. On Friday, the US nonfarm jobs in January came out at 517k, roughly triple consensus estimates and the biggest gain in six months. The unemployment rate slipped to 3.4%, its lowest level since 1969. Investors were reassured by the fact that the monthly rise in average hourly earnings fell back to 0.3%, helping bring the year-over-year increase back down to 4.4%, the lowest level since August 2021. Meanwhile, US nonmanufacturing activity jumped to 55.2 from 49.2 in December. Shares in Europe rose while the ECB and BoE hiked by 50 basis points. The dollar soared, Gold and Oil dropped while Bitcoin was almost unchanged on the week.